IntroductionThis document describes the IEEE1588 hardware assist driver interfaces exposed to the user-mode applications and how to use those interfaces to drive the IEEE1588 hardware to achieve time synchronization on Ethernet and CAN. In a distributed control system containing multiple clocks, individual clocks tend to drift apart. A correction mechanism is necessary to synchronize the individual clocks to maintain global time, which is accurate to some requisite clock resolution.The IEEE1588-2008 standard defines a precision clock synchronization protocol for networked measurement and control systems, including several messages used to exchange timing information.The hardware assist logic required to achieve precision clock synchronization using the IEEE1588-2008 standard depends on the implementation.